Microsoft has decided to yank its Windows 7 USB/DVD Tool from its Website following allegations that the utility makes improper use of open source code, CNet reports.

"Microsoft is looking into this issue and is taking down the [Windows 7 updating] tool from the Microsoft Store site until its review is complete," the company said in a statement. "We apologize to our customers for any inconvenience."

That's bad new for existing netbook owners and anyone else without an optical drive and hoping to upgrade to Windows 7. Before it was taken down, the tool made it possible to take a downloadable copy of the OS and create a bootable drive.

But according to Rafael Rivera of the "Within Windows" blog, the tool may violoate several GPL terms and conditions. Rivera says the source code was "obviously lifted from the CodePlex-hosted (yikes) GLLv2-licensed ImageMaster project" without the author's knowledge. He also contends that Microsoft neglected to provide source code for their modifications to ImageMaster or their tool.